


Close to Midnight

by Andramion



Series: A Week's Worth of HinaKen [6]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Friendship, M/M, New Year's Eve, fluff?, hatsumode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-17
Updated: 2015-10-17
Packaged: 2018-04-26 19:01:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5016508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andramion/pseuds/Andramion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hinata takes Kenma to his local shrine to celebrate the start of the New Year and have their first shrine visit of the year in one go.<br/>On their way there, they run into Hinata's childhood friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Close to Midnight

"Shou-chan!"

Kenma stops in the middle of his next step as Shouyou turns around and pulls on Kenma's hand in the motion.

Across the street, someone's waving at them - or well, at Shouyou - even though he seems embarrassed to have shouted over the noise of the traffic. Kenma notices the exact moment recognition dawns on Shouyou's face: his eyebrows relax, then jump up as an excited grin splits his face.

"That's Izumin!" he tells Kenma, before his hold on Kenma's hand weakens. His fingers almost slip away completely when he starts making his way over to his friend - because really, Kenma doesn't think Shouyou would react this way to anyone he wouldn't call a friend. Plus, Kenma can recall the name, though the memory is hazy. At least he's certain this person is someone Shouyou knew before him.

He grabs for Shouyou's hand again and misses, but his fingers close around the fabric of Shouyou's sleeve and that's enough too. He follows Shouyou as he threads through the crowd of people on the sidewalk, some of them muttering complaints at them going in the opposite direction, and Kenma is glad Shouyou is there. He doesn't really like the mass of people, bodies that have no business being so close to him being forced into his personal space. But somehow Shouyou makes it better, anchors him. Kenma might not feel like he could survive a storm blowing over him, but at least he's not drowning in a puddle of water either.

As they get closer to the other person, Shouyou almost seems to double in size, with the amount of space his ever-moving body takes up. Maybe that's why Kenma can't really see where they're going, or so he tells himself, even though he knows it has more to do with how he always catches himself watching Shouyou, how his eyes are so automatically pulled towards him, it's almost startling. He panicked about it, before, when he still hadn't really figured out that this - them - was something that could work.

He bumps into Shouyou's shoulder when Shouyou suddenly stops, skidding to a halt in front of his friend.

"Hi," they both say at the same time and identical grins fall into place on their faces in greeting.

"It's been a while, Shou-chan!" the other guy exclaims, voice light, lyrical. He stretches his neck out a little when he speaks, pulling his chin out from the thick scarf wrapped around his neck multiple times. Then he seems to notice Kenma and takes a step to the side so he's facing both of them.

"Hi!" he says to Kenma, brown eyes growing even bigger and Kenma could swear there are sparkles in his eyes.

"OH!" Shouyou turns towards Kenma a little, happily presenting him to his friend. "Izumin, this is Kenma!! He's here for the holidays!"

"You told me about him. It's really nice to meet you!" Izumin cocks his head and smiles and Kenma can't really fight the smile that creeps onto his face. He wonders if Izumin is always like this. "I'm Izumi. Ah, Izumi Yukitaka."

Kenma hums and bows his head a little.

"Nice to meet you too, Yukitaka."

He hears a splutter and looks up again to see Yukitaka's face flush red, making the freckles on the bridge of his nose stand out even more.

"I.." He lets out a nervous chuckle and Kenma considers apologising, but then Yukitaka brings his hand up and rubs the back of his neck, smiling once again. "Oh wow, nobody ever calls me by my given name."

He laughs again, but this time he turns his eyes on Kenma's and the sound turns more genuine. "It's okay, though. Just call me what you like."

Kenma hums again in agreement and when he turns to look at Shouyou, Shouyou is positively radiating happiness.

"I knew you'd get on," he comments and he thumps Yukitaka's shoulder lightly with his fist before looking at the big stream of people on the pavement at the other side of the road. "I thought you always went to a different shrine, Izumin?"

"We do! Ah, but.. I'm.. not here with my family this year." Yukitaka shuffles his feet and looks at the ground.

"You're not?" Shouyou's eyebrows draw together as he thinks and Kenma wonders how Shouyou hasn't already figured out what Yukitaka's nervous behaviour means. Then again, Shouyou can be a little dense about things that weren't volleyball. Kenma thinks it’s adorable, really, so he isn't about to complain about it.

"Are you here with Kouji?" Shouyou asks, eventually, apparently having come to a conclusion. And apparently it is right too, judging by the way Yukitaka's eyes grow wider and his mouth falls open.

"I.. h-how did...?" Yukitaka stutters and Shouyou's grin only grows wider.

"I knew it!" Shouyou exclaims, "How come you're just going with the two of you? Have you guys not made any new friends yet at high school?"

Kenma's face pinches in at Shouyou's words. Does he not realise how hurtful those words can sound?

"It's because," another voice sounds behind them and Kenma turns in time to see someone clap Shouyou over the head softly, "we're together, dumbass.”

"Kouji!" Shouyou's voice reaches an even higher pitch when he looks at his friend with fake indignation on his face, before it falls away into a smile again. It seems nothing is going to break Shouyou's good mood this evening. Kenma is glad. His mother always says that the way you are feeling and what you are doing at the end of the year will impact your whole new year. It always makes him wonder how people ever bring about any changes if that were true, but the idea of Shouyou smiling like this definitely sits well with him.

Kenma feels his cheeks heat up when he realises he was planning ahead again. Somehow, Shouyou's presence has just wormed it's way into every thought Kenma has had about the near future - and of further along the line.

"But that doesn't explain why you're here alone, if you're going with friends," Shouyou's voice pulls Kenma out of his thoughts.

"Shou-chan..." Yukitaka starts, a sigh in his voice, until Kouji takes over.

"It's because we're together like you and Kenma-san are," Kouji explains, his voice gruff. He looks at Kenma for a moment before turning back to Shouyou. "That _is_ Kenma-san, right?"

"You don't need to use honorifics," is Kenma's confirmation and Kouji nods at him before turning to a frozen Shouyou.

"Is it really that much of a surprise?" he asks him, and Kenma decides he likes Kouji's no-nonsense way of speaking. "If I think back, it's not like we were exactly subtle about liking each other in middle school."

Shouyou doesn’t respond to that, clearly still overworking his brain trying to figure this one out when Yukitaka breaks the silence.

"Should we get in line? This shrine gets quite busy over New Year's."

Kenma nods, pulls Shouyou's hand in his own and the four make their way across the street without many words. Halfway down the line on their way to the shrine's grounds, Shouyou's head pops back up.

"Wait, so is this now a friend thing? Or do we go separately?"

Kenma watches Yukitaka's frown pale in comparison to Kouji's thinking face.

"It can be a double date," Kenma tells them all, his voice feeling a bit out of place now that he's been quiet for a while.

"A double date!" Shouyou high fives Kouji and grins at Yukitaka, as Yukitaka mumbles something about whether or not shrine visits should be counted as dates or if that was disrespectful.

Slowly, they make their way to the front of the line, the three childhood friends chatting away and Kenma listening to them happily. He's glad to meet these two, to see this side of Shouyou too, though it's not that much different from the others. Still, there's something so easy between these three, that Kenma can't help but smile, thinking about a tiny (tinier, Kenma's brain provides and he decides he should keep it to himself) Shouyou running around with Yukitaka and Kouji.

He rings the bell together with Shouyou, claps his hands together and prays for his family's health, for Kuroo's university entrance exams to go well and for his team to do well the coming year. And as they shuffle towards the exit, fortunes drawn and tied up, charms for health, good grades and romance in their pockets, Kenma warms his hands on his paper cup of hot cocoa and realises that he wouldn't mind spending every New Year with Shouyou like this.

He wouldn't mind at all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Comments are very welcome, so feel free to let me know what you thought!


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